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What happens when a market holiday falls on a weekend?

When a US market holiday lands on a Saturday, the stock market closes the Friday before. When it lands on a Sunday, the market closes the Monday after. There's one exception, and it's about the end of a month or year.

Beginner guide · 6-minute read · Updated 2026-11-01

The short answer

The New York Stock Exchange has a rule for this. Nasdaq keeps the same days.

• Holiday on a Saturday: the market closes on the Friday before.
• Holiday on a Sunday: the market closes on the Monday after.
• The exception: if that Friday is the last trading day of a month or a year, the market stays open.

In practice the exception is about one holiday: New Year's Day. When January 1 is a Saturday, the Friday before is December 31, the last day of the year. So the market doesn't close that Friday. It just loses the holiday.

Where the rule comes from

It's NYSE Rule 7.2. It lists the holidays and how to handle the ones that land on a weekend. The rule ties the exception to the end of a monthly or yearly accounting period. That's the day firms close their books, so it stays a normal trading day.

Source for the rule's text: govinfo.gov.

Real examples in 2026 and 2027

Here are the full lists, so you can see the moved days in place:

Two knock-on effects in 2027 are worth knowing:

• No Christmas Eve short day. Most years the market closes early on Christmas Eve. In 2027 Christmas Eve is the holiday, so there's nothing to shorten. The only 2027 early close is the day after Thanksgiving.
• June options expire on Thursday. June 18, 2027 is the third Friday of the month, when monthly options normally expire. With the market closed, the last trading day moves to Thursday, June 17. See the options expiration calendar.

For all of 2027's market dates in one place, see the full 2027 economic calendar.

Other markets have their own versions

The rule above is for US stock exchanges. Others move weekend holidays too, but on their own lists:

• The TSX. In 2026, Boxing Day falls on Saturday, December 26. The TSX closes on Monday, December 28 instead. The US market is open that day. See TSX vs NYSE holidays.
• The US bond market. Bonds follow a separate calendar from SIFMA, a bond-industry group. In 2026 it also closed on Friday, July 3. But it adds holidays stocks don't have, like Veterans Day.

So "the market is closed" can mean different things for stocks, bonds and Canadian shares on the same day. Check the one you trade.

Why it matters for options

Options expire on trading days. If an option's expiry day is a holiday, its last chance to trade moves to the day before. Monthly options do this on a holiday Friday. For other expiries, check the last trading day in your broker's option chain.

That turns a normal week into a four-day week, and many traders don't notice until too late.

Here is a worked example (hypothetical, made-up company and round numbers).

You sold one put on Pinecrest Foods with a $50 strike and collected $1.00 a share, or $100. It expires the week of a Saturday holiday. You planned to check it Friday morning and close it if needed.

The market is closed Friday. The put's last trading day was Thursday. On Thursday afternoon the stock slid to $47 and closed there. You weren't watching.

You now own 100 shares at $50 that are worth $4,700. Your plan had a Friday in it. The calendar didn't. For how to handle this, see options expiration on a market holiday, and the wheel strategy for what to do with shares once you're assigned.

How to never get caught

1. Look a month ahead. Each month, check whether a holiday lands on a weekend.
2. Mark the moved day, not the holiday. Write "closed Friday" in your calendar, not "July 4".
3. Check your expiries that week. Treat Thursday as Friday.

The is the stock market open today tool reads the same holiday list as this page and tells you about any day you type in.

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